January 16, 2019 @ 11:03 am By Cali Haan  |  

Nicolas Maduro, President of Venezuela, has announced a ten-fold increase to the value of the country’s new national cryptocurrency, el petro, to 36 ooo sovereign bolivars (not to be confused with standard bolivars) and has also raised the minimum wage in the country by 18 000… Read More

January 15, 2019 @ 4:28 pm By Cali Haan  |  

“The business environment is increasingly harsh, but we can still produce a profit.” Two large Japanese IT companies, DMM and GMO, recently closed or considerably shrank their cryptomining operations citing millions in 2018 losses. That hasn’t stopped the Japanese firm Ginco Mongol, whose CEO furnished the… Read More

January 15, 2019 @ 12:18 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Bitmex, a Hong Kong-based Bitcoin derivatives exchange popular for allowing 100X leveraged bets, has deactivated the trading accounts of clients from the US and the Canadian province of Quebec, The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reports. The move has likely been made in response to increased regulatory pressure… Read More

January 15, 2019 @ 10:57 am By Cali Haan  |  

A man who spent $2570 USD in Bitcoin buying a Glock 9 mm gun, a silencer and 150 rounds of ammunition on the Dark Net has been sentenced to five years in prison by a judge in Scotland, Bloomberg reports. David Mitchell, 48, whom the… Read More

January 14, 2019 @ 10:49 pm By Cali Haan  |  

“We had welcomed this.” Locals in Rockdale, Texas, a small town east of Austin that recently lost two of its largest employers and 30% of the local tax base, are disappointed to learn that Bitmain, the world’s largest manufacturer of cryptocurrency mining equipment and operator… Read More

January 14, 2019 @ 4:15 pm By Cali Haan  |  

The Bulgarian National Revenue Agency (NRA) is launching a series of “control actions” to inspect nine cryptocurrency exchanges operating in the region, Novinite reports. The inspections are being conducted in order to ensure that clients and the companies themselves are complying with local tax requirements…. Read More

January 14, 2019 @ 1:26 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Researchers at Crowdstrike, FireEye, Kryptos Logic, and McAfee are all reporting that ransomware known as Ryuk is, in fact, being proliferated by professional hack groups in Russia, and not by North Koreans, ZDNet reports. According to the outlet: “The era of individual ransomware operations appears to be ending, with fewer… Read More

January 14, 2019 @ 10:16 am By Cali Haan  |  

Police in Spain and Costa Rica have arrested 12 individuals they believe kidnapped an American businessperson in Costa Rica on September 24th, 2018, The Daily Mail reports. According to various Costa Rican media, William Sean Creighton, also known as ‘5 Dimes Tony,’ was running the ‘5 Dimes’… Read More

January 12, 2019 @ 8:18 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Alex Sunnarborg, a crypto fund manager at Tetras Capital has questioned user numbers claimed by operators of the “decentralized prediction market” platform Augur, Cointelegraph reports. On Jan 10th, Sunnarborg claimed on Twitter that, in its most recent weekly report, Augur had inflated its user numbers by… Read More

January 12, 2019 @ 8:11 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Investigators from the Korean Ministry of Science, Technology and Information and the Korea Internet Development Agency (KISA) have found “weak” security at 31 0f approximately 38 crypto exchanges studied, ZDNet reports. Investigators deployed an 85-point security checklist to participating exchanges and found that, “14 exchanges… Read More

January 11, 2019 @ 12:52 pm By Cali Haan  |  

The Chinese National Internet Information Office (CNIIO) issued rules to govern the country’s “Blockchain Information Services” sector yesterday. The rules will go into force February 15th, 2019. The rules, which include ID requirements and development of channels to provide information to China’s “social credit” system (used for… Read More

January 11, 2019 @ 7:03 am By Cali Haan  |  

A Maltese-Italian actor and model named Davide Tucci has taken to Facebook to warn the public that his face and name are being used in fake Facebook ads, on websites and and in articles to promote Bitcoin-related scams, Malta Today reports. According to Tucci in… Read More

January 10, 2019 @ 9:01 pm By Cali Haan  |  

People who lost millions in cryptocurrencies to hackers that hijacked their cellphones are collaborating to educate the public and strike back against Telecom companies they say aren’t doing enough to prevent the hacks, Motherboard reports. Crowdfund Insider has reported on numerous cryptocurrency thefts involving the… Read More

January 10, 2019 @ 8:50 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Ardo Hansson, an Estonian who is also the Governor of the European Central Bank, told conference attendees in Riga, Latvia, recently that cryptocurrencies are “[a] complete load of nonsense,” and will probably fail, Bloomberg reports. He also called the sector, which has been hailed by many,… Read More

January 10, 2019 @ 2:00 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Venezuela has formally asked the United States to consult on the sanctions it has imposed on the South American country, including sanctions on its state-issued cryptocurrency, el Petro. The request was also, “circulated to the (WTO) Dispute Settlement Body.” Venezuela claims the “unilateral coercive” sanctions against… Read More

January 10, 2019 @ 12:21 pm By Cali Haan  |  

A new CEO is already in place at Bitmain, the world’s largest manufacturer of cryptocurrency mining equipment and operator of crypto mines, a source to Hong Kong news outlet The South China Morning Post (SCMP) claims. Though Bitmain itself has refused to confirm the change, a former… Read More

January 9, 2019 @ 10:25 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Police and Norwegian media are reporting that the wife of one of Norway’s richest people went missing from her home October 31st, and hasn’t been seen since. According to Norwegian police, “the main hypothesis” is that 68-year-old Anne-Elisabeth Hagen was abducted. Police say they found… Read More

January 9, 2019 @ 10:13 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Erik Vorhees, CEO of a cryptocurrency hot wallet and marketplace project called Shapeshift, has announced in a company blog post that he has “let go” 37 employees in response to the “Crypto Winter” now underway. “It’s a deep and painful reduction, mirrored across many crypto… Read More

January 9, 2019 @ 2:37 pm By Cali Haan  |  

The Riksbank of Sweden has issued a warning to the public that, “On certain websites and in social media, false information is circulating claiming that the Riksbank is selling e-kronas.” The Riksbank also says it has been contacted by individuals saying they have been solicited… Read More

January 9, 2019 @ 10:54 am By Cali Haan  |  

Regulators from the Japanese Financial Services Agency today told Cointelegraph Japan that, contrary to information provided by an anonymous source to Bloomberg, the agency is not contemplating approving Bitcoin ETFs in Japan right now. According to an FSA source to Cointelegraph: “We are not considering… Read More